Alert Net(New York, October 12, 2005)-There are at least 2,225 child offenders serving life without parole (LWOP) sentences in U.S prisons for crimes committed before they were age 18, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said in a new joint report published today. While many of the child offenders are now adults, 16 percent were between 13 and 15 years old at the time they committed their crimes. An estimated 59 percent were sentenced to life without parole for their first-ever criminal conviction. Forty-two states currently have laws allowing children to receive life without parole sentences.
The 157-page report, The Rest of Their Lives: Life without Parole for Child Offenders in the United States, is the first national study examining the practice of trying children as adults and sentencing them to life in adult prisons without the possibility of parole. The report is based on two years of research and on an analysis of previously uncollected federal and state corrections data. The data allowed the organizations to track state and national trends in LWOP sentencing through mid-2004 and to analyze the race, history and crimes of young offenders.
"Kids who commit serious crimes shouldn't go scot-free," said Alison Parker, senior researcher with Human Rights Watch, who authored the report for both organizations. "But if they are too young to vote or buy cigarettes, they are too young to spend the rest of their lives behind bars."
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch are releasing The Rest of Their Lives at a critical time: while fewer youth are committing serious crimes such as murder, states are increasingly sentencing them to life without parole. In 1990, for example, 2,234 children were convicted of murder and 2.9 percent sentenced to life without parole. By 2000, the conviction rate had dropped by nearly 55 percent (1,006), yet the percentage of children receiving LWOP sentences rose by 216 percent (to nine percent).
Not a big fan of imprisoning a child for life, but I would have to say that if it were my family or friend they had murdered or raped, I would have a hard time feeling sympathy for them, regardless of their age. Still, the rate that we are sentencing children to prison is alarming for a developed country. Perhaps this is one reason why the U.S. has failed to support the UN Declaration of the Rights of the Child. Only the U.S. and lowly Somalia have failed to ratify the UN declaration.
The rate at which they are being sentenced parallels the rate at which they are committing their heinous crimes.
At what age does murder become acceptable?"But if they are too young to vote or buy cigarettes, they are too young to spend the rest of their lives behind bars."
Don't do the crime if you can't do the time.
but I'm rollin
so thats a ed up slogan
wow, i'm suprised dan feels this way..
but yeah, if you kill, no matter how young(unless it was an accidental hunting accident or something) you should go away for life
Young people do stupid things. I don't think they should get life without parole. You can't give up on someone before they are old enough to evaluate risks.
you can't possibly believe that a 13 year old child knows what he is doing when he or she kills somebody!!
somehow I expected this response from you
There is Customary International Law that prohibits sentencing a juvenile to life in prison without the possiblity of parole. In order to be given that sentence they have to be certified to stand trial as an adult so technically they're not juveniles.
I would think that it's used only as a measure of last resort Manu. There is different criteria used in handing out this harsh sentence including the viciousness of the crime, the lack of remorse by the murderer, not admitting to committing the crime even though indisputable evidence exists that finds them guilty beyond a shadow of a doubt, etc.
They may not have known the punishment for the crime they committed but yes, I absolutely believe that the 13-15 year old juveniles were aware of what they were doing. If they didn't they would probably would have fallen into the mentally incompetent category and not been give such a harsh sentence
Also, life without parole doesn't always mean life without parole.
It would be interesting to find out what is the longest amount of time currently served by someone that was in the 13-15 year old age bracket.
Perhaps the USSC will have an opportunity to rule on it's cons utionality, althought as previously stated, technically they are not juveniles.
What about a 1 year old!!!!
who cares if he is 13 or not.. it sucks, but the kid has shown he can't be a normal member of society(ie not killing innocent people). it is bad that he has to be locked away, but you tell the mother, father, brother, sister, etc.. "oh, i am sorry for your loss, but he didn't know what he was doing. he will learn when he grows up."
You tell his(the kid)mother, sister, brother, etc, that his life is over. He will never get the chance to be a productive citizen because of terrible mistakes as a youth.
I completely agree. While I believe there are clearly some minors who may be beyond rehabilitation, those kids (hardened gang members) deserve to be in prison forever, but the rate we are sentencing kids to prison for life, I think shows that the standard for those deserving a life sentence has been lowered.
Maybe the rate of vicious crimes committed by juveniles parallels the escalating rate of incarceration.
i would gladly tell them that their son forfeited his chance when chose to end someone's life. youth or not, he/she is a killer.
[sing] 18 and a life to gooooo, no crime this time and its 18 AND A LIFE TO GOOO-OO-OHHHHH[/sing]
Look, we set legal limits for our kids like purchasing tobacco or alcohol to help protect them from unrestrained youthful indiscretions, mainly because at that age they don't possess the self-discipline, the real-life experience, and in some cases, even the mental capacities to deal with some of the consequences of their individual life choices. However, when it comes to youth and killing, even if it is going to war for your country, we expect kids to deal with issues and emotions that I bet some grown adults wouldn't be able to deal with if they were somehow magically able to be put into the youth's shoes. Killers can't empathize with their victims either.
In America, every case involving youth crime is different because every court and set of laws in every state is different. What may be a life-sentence in one state could be a 15-year sentence in another. There are also strict sentencing FED guidelines, like the 3-strikes and your out law, which have been found to be unnecessarily harsh in many cases, especially in those involving minor drug offenses.
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